Sports such as hockey, figure skating and speed skating involve the use of sharp blades to skate across rinks at high velocities. The combination of sharp blade edges and high velocities can lead to gruesome injuries that can end an athlete's career. Many of these injures may be avoidable through the proper use of protective equipment.
For instance, in hockey, an injury may occur when a player's skate inadvertently hits another player's leg in an area that is not protected by a pad. As an example, a typical goalie leg pad covers only the front and sides of a leg, leaving the back of the leg unprotected. If a player accidentally slices the exposed back area of a goalie's leg with his skate, the goalie can suffer a debilitating injury from a laceration caused by the skate's blade.
There is also the requirement in some sports and activities to provide protection against other types of lacerations and abrasion injuries that result from the environment or friction during a fall or slide as in skiing, cycling, football or soccer.
Some protective equipment known in the art attempt to provide increased protection to the users of such equipment. However, because of the demands of the sport and of the users, much of the current protective equipment tend to focus on becoming lightweight and less cumbersome to wear.
Unfortunately, this has led to the shortening of various dimensions of the equipment and the attendant exposure of more body parts to harm. Other protective equipment may provide adequate protection, but at the cost of being bulky and heavy. Such bulky and heavy equipment can be uncomfortable, especially in hot temperatures. There is therefore a need to mitigate if not overcome the shortcomings of the prior art and to, preferably, provide maximized protective coverage using a lightweight material that is breathable and which does not restrict flexibility.